Trace gas in electrical equipment is typically generated from electrical insulating oil used in electrical equipment, which generates and distributes electrical power. Some examples of electrical equipment include transformers, tap-changers and circuit breakers. When a fault occurs within the electrical equipment a trace gas (i.e., a fault gas) may be generated in the electrical insulating oil. The trace gases are extracted from an oil sample obtained from the electrical equipment and measured by a measurement device. The trace gas measurements are used to provide an operational and health status of the electrical equipment.
For example, in a transformer, when faults e.g., arcing and overheating occur, gases such as methane and carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide are present in the insulating oil of the transformer. Measurements of these trace gases can be used to determine the type and the severity of the faults which occur in the electrical equipment.
A measurement device such as a photo-acoustic spectroscopy are typically used to obtain trace gas measurements where small vibrations of the molecules in trace gases are generated when subjected to a particular infrared (IR) frequencies of light. In conventional methods, the trace gas extraction process may be a difficult and time-consuming process.